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The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) estimates that food waste accounts for more than 25% of trash after recycling. That means more than 1 million tons of food waste not even being composted.
That’s why MassDEP has been active in promoting programs to eliminate food waste for not only homes, but in businesses, schools and throughout municipalities. According to the state’s website, “MassDEP is working towards a statewide goal of diverting 780,000 tons of food waste and organic material from disposal per year by 2030.”
Sustainability Director Ken Pruitt said the state is pushing those goals hard.
“We have severe landfill and incinerator capacity issues,” Pruitt said. “That’s why the state has set up these waste reduction targets and that’s why they are trying to help with grants.”
The state’s Sustainable Material Recovery Program (SMRP), created through the Green Communities Act and MassDEP regulations, is “annual grant program for municipalities and regional solid waste management districts in Massachusetts prioritized to promote best practices for waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.”
Winchester has been awarded $195,000 from SMRP for an aerobic digester that can rapidly compost food waste at the rate of approximately one ton a day.
Transfer Station Coordinator Nick Parlee worked with Pruitt to apply for the grant in June 2024. Parlee said the original ask was for $250,000.
“Our first choice was for a glass grinder,” Parlee said, of the grant. “But the state didn’t recommend that.”
Instead, the state pushed for a digester, which Parlee was glad to take. Winchester was informed it had received the SMRP grant in December 2024.
Winchester will become the first municipality with a digester that’s not being used in a treatment plant, such as those in Boston and Cambridge.
Parlee said the digester is like a giant stomach, which “eats” food waste, grinds it and pushes it through a series of grates. The food is broken down, producing compost.
“A lot of food waste can be captured,” Parlee said. “We think we could do about two tons in a week.”
Parlee said the plan is to put up a metal pre-fabricated building around the new digester on the site of the former incinerator because it has to be indoors.
Worried about the smell, Parlee took a trip down to Rhode Island to check out one of the machines in action.
“The output material smelled spicy,” he said, adding there was no garbage smell at all. “This unit is designed to work in a building so we were mindful of having any odor. This just produces steam.”
Parlee said Winchester is still waiting for the grant money to come in, but the hope is to get the digester up and running by summer. After that, the town plans to eliminate its $30,000 contract with Black Earth, which currently hauls away food waste in six large rolling green bins.
Pruitt said in addition to the obvious cost savings, “processing food waste onsite will significantly reduce the carbon pollution currently caused by trucking Winchester’s food waste offsite.”
And then the town can start looking at other ways to cut food waste.
“We can target public buildings, like cafeterias in the schools,” Parlee said. “Once we have a fixed cost, we can aggressively target food waste.”
Pruitt added he will also run an educational program, encouraging more people in town to compost.
“If everyone does that, it will save us a ton of money,” Pruitt said.
Parlee added the other advantage for resident would be the lowering of the transfer station permit fees from having the new digester onsite.
“That’s the end goal,” he said. “Although, it may not happen this year.”
